Quoting Steve Litt (slitt@???):

> It was a corporate LUG. Kill the LUG, every cent in the treasury must
> go to a 501C3, so they'd be starting with not a nickel to their name.

I suppose that would do it.

You may know that I maintain the Linux User Group HOWTO for the Linux
Documentation Project. One of the bits of advice I give there is:
Don't _have_ a treasury, if you can avoid it.

Little treasuries of little non-profit groups are very much like
academic politics: The fighting over them is fierce because the stakes
are so very small. The best way to avoid having there be volunteer
political squabbling over the control and spending of money is for the
group to not have any. (There _are_ other ways to handle recurring
expenses.)

Personally, I'd have restarted that LUG without a nickel to its name,
but I'm sure there were reasons. (Ah, further down you mention that
there was a lot more.)

BTW, the LUG HOWTO has advice about how to deal with legal matters such
as incorporation and official non-profit status. I wrote the USA
section about that. Other countries are covered by contributions I
gratefully accepted by others. I explain in detail _why_ I say in the
HOWTO: Don't incorporate, and don't go for recognised non-profit status.

Because I got tired of Linux-using LUG net.randoms writing to me and
telling me I don't know that subject, I eventually added mention of the
fact that I've passed the Certified Public Accountant exam and used to
work in that field and do taxes for a living.

I hadn't thought to say 'Another reason you shouldn't go for
incorporation and 501(c)(3) charity status is that you might have a
small organisational bobble and be forced to turn over everything you
own to another charity.' Which is indeed quite a cautionary tale.